Why I'll be tuning back in to the BBC's Football League Show

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BBC’s The Football League Show already has the feel of a programme that has been on the air for years. This isn’t because the show looks old – in fact it could hardly be any more interactive were its presenters dressed up as iPhones – but because it speaks to an audience that already exists, and is passionate.

Anchored by Manish Bashin, with help from professional cloggers Steve Claridge and Ian Holloway, in some ways the programme highlights the problems the BBC has whenever it covers football. Bashin is obsessed with whether or not teams can gain promotion to the Premier League, and the section devoted to viewers’ emails seemed only interested in reading out messages from Newcastle fans who want Alan Shearer to be their club’s manager, despite the fact that ‘Wor Al’ gone some way to ensuring the team were relegated in the first place.

Considering the BBC is funded by all of us, it spends a good deal of time talking about big clubs and the Premier League. Even when its supposedly featuring teams who do not play in that division.

But these are merely gripes, because overall The Football League Show is a success. The reason it is a success is because on the opening weekend of the Championship, League 1 and League 2 seasons almost 450,000 people attended live matches over three divisions. This is enough eyes and ears to warrant a programme that concentrates (however briefly) on the teams these people support, and only on the teams these people support.

Which is why, for all its faults, The Football League Show already feels like an old friend.